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Thursday, January 22, 2015

Amelia and Eleanor - Birds of a Feather

By Marilyn Turk

In the 1930’s two women dominated the
headlines: aviator Amelia Earhart and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Earhart was an adventurous child, raised to
be a nonconformist by her mother Amy, who dressed Amelia and her sister in
bloomers instead of skirts like other girls wore. Dubbed as “tomboys,” the
sisters climbed trees and roamed the nearby woods. At the age of ten while at
the state fair, Amelia saw a biplane and fell in love with the notion of
flying.

Amelia was convinced that women could do
anything men could do and kept a scrapbook of
newspaper clippings about successful women in predominantly male-oriented
fields, including film direction and production, law, advertising, management
and mechanical engineering.

As a teen, she was fascinated by an air show given by a World
War I flying ace. A few years later her father took her to an airfield where
she was treated to a ride in an airplane. By the time the plane lifted off the
ground, Amelia was hooked on flying.

Amelia Earhart

She went on to national fame when she began her flying
career, marking many “firsts” among aviation feats for women. In 1932, she
became the first woman to fly nonstop across the Atlantic alone, flying from
Newfoundland to Ireland on a flight that was just shy of 15 hours. She received
the Distinguished Flying Crossfrom Congress, the Cross of
Knight of the Legion of Honorfrom the French Governmentand the
Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society. As her fame grew, she developed friendships with many people in high
offices, such as Eleanor Roosevelt.

Eleanor’s background was much different. After the death of
her parents, young Eleanor was raised by her grandmother, a woman of wealth and
high social standing. Eleanor was groomed to be one of the ladies of society as
well and was sent to a finishing school in England. However, at the school, Eleanor
was taught to think independently and she developed her self-esteem among
fellow students.

She returned to New York where she was presented as a
debutante and began doing charity work with the women’s Junior League. She
became passionate about helping others and spent hours volunteering in the city
slums, a habit frowned upon by wealthy relatives.

Eleanor married
Franklin Delano Roosevelt who went on to become president of the United States.
When he was afflicted with polio in 1921, Eleanor took on a more active role in
politics, dramatically changing the role of First Lady. Not content
to stay in the background and handle domestic matters, she showed the world
that the first lady was an important part of American politics. She gave press
conferences and spoke out for human rights, children's causes and women's
issues, working on behalf of the League of Women Voters. She also focused on
helping the country's poor, stood against racial discrimination and, during
World War II, traveled abroad to visit U.S. troops.

So it came as no surprise that the
First Lady of Aviation and the First Lady of the United States admired and
respected each other. As a frequent guest to the White House, Amelia and
Eleanor discovered their mutual desire to fight both racial and sexual discrimination,
as well as, help the disadvantaged of the post-depression era. Outspoken about
their concerns, these women braved public opinion by doing things not done
before.

At a White House dinner party on
April 20, 1933, Amelia invited Eleanor to go on a night flight to Baltimore and
back. The president was away, but other dinner guests, including the president
of Eastern Air Transport, went to the nearest airport, Hoover Field in
Arlington, VA. Dressed in their evening clothes, the party boarded an Eastern
Air Transport twin-engine Curtis Condor. Earhart, dressed in a white silk gown
and wearing white kid gloves, was at the controls of the plane for most of the
flight.

Eleanor had hopes to someday take flying lessons from
Amelia, but the president objected to the idea, so Eleanor’s dream to be a
pilot never materialized.

Marilyn
Turk lives in and writes about the coastal South, especially its history. Rebel Light, the first book in her
Coastal Lights Legacy series, and her Lighthouse
Devotions, will be published in 2015. Her historical suspense, The Gilded Curse, will be published in
March 2016. She writes a weekly lighthouse blog @ http://marilynturk.com.

I'm trying to zip through emails but when I got the one about this post, I had to hop over and read it. And I'm glad I did. These women accomplished so much, and it's interesting to learn they were friends. Thanks, Marilyn.

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